Furthermore, Paul said that he counted all things refuse that he might gain Christ and be found in Him (vv. 8-9). For God to reveal Christ into you is one aspect. The other aspect is that you will be found in Christ. Then Christ is in you, and you are in Christ. No one can exhaust the meaning of these two little phrases—Christ in me and I in Christ. This simply means that you and Christ are one. Because you are mingled, blended with Christ as one, when people persecute you they are persecuting Christ. Paul wanted to be found in Christ "not having my own righteousness which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God based on faith" (3:9). Our righteousness is as filthy rags (Isa. 64:6). Paul wanted to live not in his own righteousness but in the righteousness of God, and to be found in such a transcendant condition, expressing God by living Christ, not by keeping the law. To have the righteousness which is through the faith of Christ means through the union with Christ, through the identification with Christ, through the oneness with Christ. This is "the righteousness which is of God based on faith." Then Paul says, "To know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death" (3:10). Paul had known Christ already but here he uses the present tense—that I may know Him. Paul wanted to experience Christ in the full knowledge of Him. He first received the revelation of Christ, and then sought for the experience of Christ—to know and enjoy Christ in an experiential way.

God's plan is to have Christ as our life and to have Christ as our image or our form. First, God put Christ into you as your life that you may live by Him, and second, God put you into Christ. Christ is the form, the mold, and you are like a piece of dough. The dough needs to be conformed to the mold. Christ is the life within and the mold without. Now we have to be conformed to Christ. After the dough is put into the mold, it is beaten to conform it to the mold and then put into the oven. If the dough could speak, it might say that this is not something good, yet we realize that for the dough to be conformed to the image of the mold it must pass through this process. In like manner, we have to be conformed to the death of Christ. By the fellowship of His sufferings, we will be conformed to His death and by this conformity we will be transformed into the same image as Christ; we will be made thoroughly one with Christ. This is God's plan.

What we have been fellowshipping is the kernel of the sixty-six books of the Bible. When we eat a peanut we do not care for the shell but for the kernel. The kernel of the Bible is that Christ has been revealed into us as life and that we live, have our being, and exist by Christ as the divine life. On the other hand, God put us into Christ with the desire that we would be conformed to the image of His Son (Rom. 8:29), that we might be transformed into the image of Christ to be thoroughly one with Christ. This is the center of the Bible and this is God's plan. This is the way God will build us together. Christ is in us, and we are in Him. Through regeneration, sanctification, transformation, and conformation we will be built up together as a living Body to contain and express Christ for His glory and our glorification.

We have to realize that the entire universe is for God's plan. Many philosophers and scientists have spent much time to find out the meaning of the universe, but very few of them know the real meaning of human life. The center of the universe is Christ in you and you in Christ. The real meaning of human life is Christ as your life with a view that you will be conformed to His image. The heavens and the earth with so many items are the background for the beautiful picture of God's plan. Praise the Lord that we are in His plan! It pleased God to reveal His Son in me, and I have to know Him, His resurrection power, and the fellowship of His sufferings. I need to be conformed to His death, transformed into His image that I might be built up with others as a living Body. Thus, in the whole universe there will be a universal Christ as the Head in the heavens and as the Body on this earth.